an emotional return to capitol hill. he appears strong at the historic inauguration of president barack obama, but a seizure during the inaugural lunch causes concern. >> right now a part of me is with him, and thing that's true for all of us. this is a joyous time, but it's also a sobering time. >> still his cancer battle does not dampen his spirit. >> when the kennedy story is told a hundred years from now, it will have to be told as each brother fell, the next one took over. joe jr. died in world war ii and then jack kennedy became the kennedy to take the banner of political life forward for the family. when jack died, it was bobby. and when bobby died, it was

teddy. and that after they were all dead he remained on the scene for decades as a public figure, as a senator, and somebody who believed in the causes that they had believed in and tried to carry them forward. >> senator edward kennedy spent decades in congress fighting for liberal causes. his legacy, public service, and his concern for america's least powerful. as he said so many years ago, the work goes on, the cause endures, and the dream will never die. that's all for this edition of "headliners & legends." i'm lester holt. thanks for watching. the kennedy brothers they stirred the country's blood and maddened their rivals, bill sapphire, richard nixon's

speechwriter put it this way, when you beat a kennedy, you beat the best, but the problem is nobody did. following the death of senator edward kennedy, here's the "hardball" political story of how these extraordinary brothers sought the american presidency. >> let the words go forth. >> we have the capacity to make this the best generation. >> let us offer new hope. in the 1950s, politics meant men in gray flannel suits, guys like dwight eisenhower, they were dull, stodgy, sexless. then in 1956 someone new appeared on the political radar.

at the democratic convention in chicago, a young and in the process catapulted himself onto the national stage. his name was jack kennedy. >> i want to take this opportunity first to express my appreciation. >> he was young, alive, great looking, and while he lost the nomination, he wowed the country. >> he tried to get it. he came very, very close. as it turned out, he did not get it, but he did become overnight a national figure. >> and then there was his stunningly beautiful wife. for us 1956 was jacqueline kennedy's debut. >> well, tell me, were you able to adjust to this? well, yes, because i've never known anything else since i've about been married. >> no one could be counted a loser with her at his side. we also met his family. boy, did he have lots of brothers and sisters. and his fabulously wealthy father.

joseph kennedy jr. was our ambassador to great britain in the late 1930s, but by 1940, his political career was over. he had nailed himself as a defeatist or worse. when he predicted that war with nazi germany would end democracicy in britain and possibly in the u.s., so his dreams of the white house were now for his sons. >> once his own political future was undone, he could pour all of his life energy into those boys. he wanted them to go places that he himself could not have gone. >> first up was the handsome hard-charging oldest brother joe jr. he took his first political steps in 1940 as a delegate in a democratic presidential convention. he was on his way. but then the war came, a war that claimed his life when his b-24 bomber exploded in midair during a secret mission to bomb german missile sites. >> there's no question that joe jr. was meant to be the head of

the family, and had he lived, he was the one that joe sr. thought would have been the man to go into politics and carry that kennedy legacy into the future. when joe jr. died, then that burden of carrying the family legacy fell onto jack. >> in 1946, 29-year-old jack ran for congress for massachusetts's 11th district, cutting in front of local politicians who had been waiting patiently for the seat to open. the year before he died, while beginning the dictate his memoirs, jack confessed to having been something of a carpet bagger. >> i was an outsider really. i had never lived very much in the district. my family had lived there but i had lived in new york for ten years and on top of that i had gone to harvard, not a particularly popular institution at that time in the 11th congressional district. >> the catholics would be used in succeeding campaigns. one was an astute use of public relations, image building.

joe sr. had been a hollywood mogul and new how to promote. >> he took hollywood techniques and applied them to politics. >> fortunately, joe sr. also had a good product to sell. lieutenant kennedy had rescued his crew when his pt both was rammed by a japanese destroyer, a story joe sr. got reprinted in "reader's digest" and then handed out 100,000 free copies to local voters. to win there was a willingness by father and son to do whatever was necessary. jack found himself trudging up countless triple-decker walk-ups to meet working-class voters. to the amazement of many old hands, the thin, young, upstart won. he was part of a new generation of veterans taking power all over the country that year. it was clear that congressman kennedy was a young man in a hurry. >> congressman kennedy, how do you feel about your race for the senate?

>> i feel it's going very well. >> 1952 only 35 years old jack ran for senate against harry lodge. kennedy's campaign manager was fellow irish catholic larry o'brien. >> my father was only one generation removed from some very bitter experiences. this presented an opportunity for the irish catholic community of massachusetts to step up to the next plateau. >> the kennedy campaign exploited the catholic voters' grudge against yankees like lodge. as they had in '46, his family mobilized. his sisters hosted teas, a chance for irish and italian ladies to celebrate the allure of the celebrated kennedys. kennedy ended up defeating lodge. he was now a u.s. senator. but it was clear that jack had a bigger prize in mind. >> i don't think he had any natural interest in the senate. i think he felt that if this was

the game, he wanted to be captain. >> kennedy now had his eye on the white house. he recruited the best and the brightest. speechwriter ted sorensen, pollster lou harris, advance man kenny o'donnell, and campaign managers, larry o'brien and younger brother bobby. >> i believe that the real trend now for senator kennedy and the democratic party, we are extremely encouraged. >> to make sure his brother's presidential campaign succeeded, bobby ran interference, toughness was in the kennedy dna, an immigrant's toughness, and bobby was the least assimilated of them all. >> the role he found was the guy that did all the dirty deeds, doing all the hard stuff, telling people to go away. saying no. le that allowed jack to float above the fray. >> with hesitate impressive campaign team in place, jack was now ready for his toughest race yet, 1960. the air is sweet.

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join us, to register this week to vote, to stand for progress, to move, to move, to go forward! until the united states achieves that great goal of practicing what it preaches. >> for 1960, jack's campaign team developed a new playbook, one that has become familiar in every presidential campaign since. use the power of television, and most importantly, take the kennedy's case directly to primary voters -- unheard of at that time -- and use their toughness, political savvy, and money to win it all. it was a campaign like no other. >> well, i hope we're going to do well, but i guess we'll know better by the time the votes are counted. >> they actually made a targeted list based on cold-blooded kind of cogent anal sis of what

states might be important and what states they could win it so he travelled around the country to those states for almost a year. >> he very rarely if ever ran into anybody from any of the competing campaigns. >> most other top democratic candidates including senate majority leader lyndon johnson didn't campaign in the primaries. they would stubbornly do it the old-fashioned way, working the smoke-filled rooms of the convention hall itself. >> the question is would i accept a spot on the kennedy ticket. the question would have better been put if kennedy would accept the second spot on the johnson ticket. >> johnson didn't think kennedy had any serious chance of being nominated for president because he was a young upstart who was not part of the inner circle or club in the senate. >> kennedy and a popular liberal from minnesota, senator hubert humphrey, were left alone to contest the early primaries. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the great city of charleston, west virginia. >> in 1960, the key battleground

was west virginia, a heavily protestant state where kennedy's religion would be put to the test. humphrey looked and sounded like a typical politicians. >> this is my wife, how do you do? mrs. halls ton, glad to see you. >> as planned, kennedy played up their man's youth and war record, comparing kennedy's war hero status with humphrey's failure to receiver in world war ii, a fact that still amuses kennedy's friend ben bradley who served on a destroyer in the pacific. >> humphrey wasn't in ward war ii. he was a hospital maid or something like that. >> you guys are unbelievable. this is what i'm talking about, you guys kept score on who was in the front. >> we knew people's war record. we sure did. >> remember senator john f. kennedy can be our next president. >> with four weeks left, kennedy trailed humphrey by 20%, so his

campaign turned up the heat, buying tv time to address head on when his pollsters saw his growing concerns about kennedy's catholic religion. >> i don't happen to believe that one of those serious issues is where i go to church on sunday. >> the strategy worked. senator kennedy crushed humphrey with 60% of the vote. but more went into this victory than appeals to patriotism and fair play, it was common knowledge in west virginia that county politicians could be swayed by cash, the kennedys had it, lots of it, and used it. >> i offer my congratulations to my friend and senate colleague jack kennedy. >> humphrey dropped out. the newest victim of the kennedy juggernaut. at the democratic convention in july, jack kennedy, a few votes shy of the nomination, fought off a growing challenge from

linden johnson. johnson's people revealed that kennedy suffered from addison's disease, which had the kennedy people not succeeded in denying it would have killed his chances. bobby kennedy couldn't contain his anger. >> there were a number of instances over the course of the 1960 convention, where he approached johnson's people and waved his finger in their face saying that you johnson people are going to get yours. >> i come to you today full of admiration -- >> but the "yours" the johns people ended up getting was kennedy's pick for vice president. kennedy had done his political calculus. he needed the texas votes and he needed a local man on the ticket to get them. with the hard-fought nomination in hand, the kennedy campaign set its sights on beating richard nixon. contrasting jack's vitality and promise to get the country moving again with the stat us attached to the 1960s. the republican nominee, of

course, is a young man, but his approach is as old as mckinley's. >> nixon was thrown at first by the coldness and the efficiency of the kennedy frontal assault. he had known and liked jack since they came to the house together in 1947. jack's father had donated money to nixon's senate campaign. jack hand-delivered the check to nixon's office and even told newspaper columnist charles bartlett, a close friend, that he would vote for nixon for president if he, jack, did not get the nomination. but jack was not one to let political fellowship affect his game. >> kennedy's team knew that the new medium of television was the way to persuade voter es. his sun-tanned radiant image was worth thousands of words and hundreds of thousands of votes. they brought in bill wilson, a seasoned tv producer. in the first prez dent chal tv

debate, wilson made sure that the viewers saw lots of shots of the ashen face's nixon who stubbornly refused to wear make-up. >> he said we need more action shots. and it was like night and day before the debate and after the debate. the crowd was enormous, it was loud, it was noisy. ♪ everyone is voting for jack ♪ because he's got what all the rest lack ♪ >> with a theme song by frank sinatra, the kennedy campaign was far more glamorous than knicks on's. it alps put lou hair's scientific polls to work in a way that had never been done before. team kennedy focused like a laser on winning the big states and their electoral votes whoo nixon focused on all 50 states. >> we surveyed 48 states for kennedy, and we wrote off half the states. he wrote off whole states knowing he would lose them.

>> in the end 100,000 votes separated kennedy and nixon out of 70 million cast, 0.1 of 1%. >> senator kennedy was elected president of the united states. >> but true to their big stage strategy, kennedy had an overwhelming majority in the electoral college. >> kennedy has won 296. that alone is enough. >> in those big states, many of the voters were catholic. kennedy had turned a historic negative into an electoral positive. >> kennedy played the catholic issue extremely well. making sure that he got all the catholic votes and had a minimum reverse effect among non-catholic voters. >> so now my wife and i prepare for a new administration and for a new baby. thank you. >> the kennedys had played politics perfectly, and their

tough tactics continued as juk picked his cabinet, listening to husband father's advice, that he needed to keep bobby close at hand. >> i am pleased to accept the position of the attorney generalship of the united states. >> with jack now in the white house and brother bobby as justice, the stage was set for the era of kennedy. ñ ♪ ♪ i got troubles, oh ♪ but not today ♪ 'cause they're gonna wash away ♪ ♪ this old heart

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just as jack had been a different type of politician, the kennedy white house was unlike anything americans had ever seen. suddenly we had a first family that was beautiful, stylish, with just the right touch of eris tock kracy. he took the best qualities of the rich old was p, old guard, and infused it with the kind of energy and vitality of rising immigrants. >> just like jack's hero, james bond, we never saw jfk sweat. a political 007, president kennedy was smooth, sophisticated, savoring the

action. >> what was jack kennedy like? >> i think he was cool. >> my uncle jack was dispassionate, detached, cool. >> jesus, he was cool. >> what the country learned only later was how well this sauve exterior hit a secret. the risky affairs that if revealed could have ruined everything. his addison's disease which had almost killed him in 1947 and again during a 1954 back operation, that required him to take steroids. and a reliance on energy boosting amphetamines, drugs which may have compromised his judgment. >> he's a shakespearean character. everything about his health is a lie. he looked like a god, but he was, as bob would say, if a mosquito bites my brother, the mosquito dieses. >> but they had a bigger worries

as the country faced numerous challenges. from the bay of pigs to the berlin wall. the toughest test came in october 1962 when u.s. spy planes photographed soviet nuclear missile bases being built in cuba, just 90 miles away. >> we will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the course of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth. >> jack's key adviser during the 13 days of the cuban missile crisis was his old campaign,. together the kennedy brothers came up with a creative solution. the u.s. put a nation's quarantine in place while sec t secretly agreed to pull obsolete u.s. missiles out of turkey. in exchange, the soviets removed their missiles from cuba, the crisis was averted and it was the kennedys' finest hours. >> what did your dad say about it afterwards?

>> he said we avoided a nuclear holocaust, the end of the world. >> back home another issue was reaching the boiling point. civil rights. >> kennedy knew that every step he took could hurt him in the upcoming 1964 election. >> he didn't want to move too fast. he didn't want to antagonize southern white democratic voters. so we had to stay with him. we had to continue to encourage him. he wanted to be able to say to southern democrats that these people are pushing me. they're putting pressure on me. >> i think if the president would sign an executive order declaring segregation unconstitutional on the basis of the 14th amendment, this would do a great deal to lead us out of this dark night of violence and prejudice which we still face in so many areas. ♪ freedom freedom freedom

>> in the spring of '63 in alabama, fire hoses and police dogs were used to brutally disperse nonviolent protesters. >> kennedy realized that it was becoming a moral issue, and as president of the united states he had to respond. >> spurred to action and pushed by bobby, kennedy delivered one of his most powerful addresses. >> we are confronted primarily with a moral issue. it is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the american constitution. the heart of the question is whether all americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. whether we are going to treat our fellow americans as we want to be treated. >> by the fall of 1963, kennedy had introduced a strong civil rights bill to congress. his first 1,000 days had seen

many successes. the peace corp, the moon program, negotiating a nuclear test ban treaty, and a growing economy. among the failures, the increasingly troubled american commitment in vietnam. in late november president kennedy and jackie flew to texas to do some political damage control for his approaching re-election campaign. on the 22nd, they landed in dallas. >> good evening. the essential facts are these. president kennedy was murdered in dallas, texas. he was shot by a sniper hiding in a building near his parade route. >> a wave of sadness and horror swept the nation while the kennedy family struggled to comprehend their loss. even in her grief, the president's widow began to

romanticize jack's legacy. she coined the term "cam lot" to describe the kennedy white house. >> jacqueline kennedy was one of the great pr women of all time, and she really knew how to play not just the press, but how to play the myth. >> it reminded later generations that there was a moment when there was this young president, there was a moment when people believed they could change the world. >> our problems are manmade. therefore, they can be solved by man. >> the celebration of jack's legacy elevated and enshrined the kennedy brothers. it would become the foundation for not one but two attempted restorations. now was the next brother's turn to carry the kennedy torch. bobby, the tough behind-t behind-the-scenes enforcer had to step forward in the spotlight. ( whooshing )

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good morning, everyone. i'm alex. here's what's happening.

frens and colleagues remember the late ted e kennedy on friday morning. they shared perj stories of his decades of public service. president obama will deliver the eulogy at kennedy's funeral later today. space shuttle "discovery." now back to the kennedy brothers. it's sort of an erie feeling in there now as you see the effects of one president being moved out and the effects of the new president, president johnson coming in. >> those who knew bobby say that after his brother's death he seemed in a trans. yet even as he brooded, he began to actively position himself as jack's rightful heir. in 1964 after lyndon johnson

denied him the chance to be his vermont, bobby resigned as attorney general and ran for the senate in new york. he had. lived in the state since he was a boy, but the kennedys were never ones to play by the rule book or wait their turn. >> no one committed to participating in public life can sit on the sidelines with so much at stake. >> yet facing taunts that he was a carpet bagger and haunted by the suspicion that the cheers were not for him but for his brother, bobby had trouble finding his political footing. >> this is the largest minority of hecklers you have ever had in? >> i don't know. i don't know. i have had them else where. i don't know. >> he was kind of tentative and he didn't want to trade on his brother's name, on the other hand, he didn't quite know what to say for himself. >> kennedy ended up defeating the popular incumbent senator ken keating by riding on lyndon

johnson's long presidential coat tails. but even as he joined his younger brother ted on the hill, he was poised for higher office, and everybody knew it. >> the feeling for most of those who watched him was that his presidential years were almost inevitable. there was always that feeling among the press and among his colleagues that one day they were going to have to deal with him on quite a different level. >> robert kennedy wasn't a cool politician like his older brother jack. he was emotional, intense, full of passion. >> the inadequacy of human compassion, the effectiveness of our sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows -- our fellow human beings throughout the world. >> and as the vietnam war death toll rose, and protesters took

to the streets, bobby found his voice. >> you gain nothing by sitting down with a north vietnamese and see if you can resolve this conflict, and i'm in favor of doing this. >> but even though he wanted to redlam the white house, bobby wasn't ready to take on the president who was expanding the war, a war his brother had backed. >> he was quite frazzled that he wasn't going to win. but it became clear that we couldn't go through another four years of the johnson presidency. >> part of him said you don't undertake something unless you think you can win. part of him said you have to do what's right. >> while bobby anguished, another anti-war candidate stepped up. minnesota senator eugene mccarthy. in 1968, mccarthy, a virtual unknown, losing to the president

by a handful of votes. a few days later, bobby was in, announcing in the same senate chamber his brother had. >> i do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policy. >> many people saw bobbie's announcement as naked political calculation. >> the opportunist. you waited until you say that lynn don was really vulnerable. you follow in his wake. it was an ill time, an inopportune time, but he did it. and he was off and running. >> robert kennedy's impassioned campaign had little to do with the well oiled campaign machine that made jack kennedy president eight years earlier. >> the bobby kennedy campaign, what was different about that from what you remember and knew about the jack kennedy campaign? >> well, it was a lot less organized. as you know, my father was very

ambivalent whether to run so it was put together in a more haphazard way. it was the spirit that got you through rather than the organization. ♪ that same ray >> are you going to vote for a man who sings like this. >> there was this enormous, enormous surge everywhere he went of youthful enthusiasm a. it was extraordinary. you know, grabbing him, mauling him, and snatching his cuff links. kids on bikes snatching at him on his motorcade. >> on march 31st, the kennedy campaign had the floor fall out from under it. >> i shall not seek and i will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president. >> bobby had been running against lyndon johnson and his

war policies, and now for a brief time he was at sea. that changed on april 4. >> i have some very sad news for all of you. martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight. >> from that night in indianapolis, his campaign had a new direction. >> what we need in the united states is not violence and lawlessness. but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another. and a feeling of justice. toward those who still suffer within our country. >> he wasn't just running against a president or a war, but trying to heal a country's racial and economic wounds as well. bobby went on to win indiana and then in nebraska. >> we want bobby! >> but he lost the oregon primary to mccarthy, a first for a kennedy in presidential politics. to have any chance, bobby needed

to best mccarthy in california. on june 4, 1968, he did just that. and won in south dakota too. >> we want bobby! we want bobby! >> for a brief moment bobby was atop a wave of excitement that just might, just might have secured him the nomination. >> my thanks to all of you, and now it's on to chicago, and let's win this. [ gunshot ] >> is there a doctor? is there a doctor? anybody, please? right here. >> senator robert francis kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today. june 6, 1968. he was 42 years old. >> i believe that robert kennedy would have won, and i think he could have defeated richard

nixon. and just think about it. no nixon, war ends, no watergate. what would this country have been like over the ensuing 40 years? oh. >> present at the hospital, the youngest kennedy brother, ted. >> i saw him briefly. his face just contorted with grief. i have never seen a man so torn as he was that night for all kinds of reasons. >> my brother need e not be idealized or enlarged in depth beyond what he was in life, but to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. >> it was that eulogy that turned bobby kennedy into that saintly liberal figure that we associate with bobby kennedy.

so all along it was ted who was investing the kennedy name with sort of concrete values, you know, civil rights, anti-war, health care, education. and that is a key to their endurance, that people consider the kennedys to be a fixed brand name. >> now there was only one brother left. tom. now, i know the catering business but when i walked in here i wasn'ture what i needed. i'm not sure what i need. tom showed me how to use mifi to get my whole team working online, on location. i was like, "woah". woah ! only verizon wireless has small business specialists in every store to help you do business better. you're like my secret ingredient. come in today and connect up to five devices on one 3g connection. now only $99.99 he needed a computer. it was kind of like a surprise present. he needs to, you know, write papers and go online.

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of the four kennedy brothers, ted, the youngest was the most connected to the others. in 1946 the family gathered in high an is in port to celebrate jack's 29th birthday.

when teddy rose to speak, the 14-year-old raised his glass and said i would like to drink a toast to the brother who isn't here. he stunned the room into silence. >> i think the three of them were not only a kind of band of brothers all their own in mythology, but in reality. >> in 1960 ted was given a key role in jack's campaign, overseeing the western states. >> i in the state of oregon do give jack an enthusiastic and overwhelming endorsement. >> when jack's senate seat came open in 1962, father joe made the call, declaring that ted, all of 30 years old, would be the candidate. >> jack and bobby did not want ted to run for the senate. they felt he was too young. >> joe said no, it's his turn now, he's helped you, now you help him. >> there are hot times brewing on the massachusetts political scene. at the state democratic convention, edward j. mccormick, 38-year-old nephew of house

speaker mccormick, seeks the house party nomination for senator. >> the kennedy operation swung into action, again even dusting off jack's slogan from 1952, he can do more for massachusetts. ted won, but the joy of ted kennedy's victory was sadly muted. prior to his triumph, joe sr. suffered a debilitating stroke. but his fourth son was now on his way. and unlike his brothers, ted found a home in the senate. >> i think teddy kennedy was very happy being a senator. he just seemed more comfortable there within two days than either of the brothers may have felt being there for several years. >> then on the night of july 18, 1969, with kennedy poised to perhaps challenge nixon in 1972, he drove off a bridge on an

island. kennedy said he was driving her back to catch a ferry to the vineyard when the accident occurred. >> there is no truth, no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. >> there are many reasons to believe that they weren't heading to the ferry. first of all, she, mary jo, left her purse and her keys, her motel keys back at the cottage. they also didn't head for the ferry. they headed in a different direction over a dirt road heading out to the beach. and the ferry had stopped running more than a-hour before they left the party. >> it seemed that ted kennedy's political career and any hope of the presidency was over. but in 1970, just 16 months later, the people of massachusetts overwhelmingly reelected him to the senate. in a may 1971 poll, he led all

democrats as a challenger to president nixon's re-election. a kennedy restoration still seemed possible. nixon was not anxious for a rematch as becomes clear in the watergate tapes. >> nixon got a break. ted didn't run in 1972. >> the prime reasons for not running is because of responsibilities to my family. >> for ted, being a kennedy brother was a heavy burden. >> senator, there is obviously a great price that one has to pay these days for political life. is the price worth the pain? >> well, i suppose it is. >> i, jimmy carter do solemnly swear. >> with ted sitting out again in 1976, jimmy carter and the

democrats retook the white house. but senator kennedy had little affection for carter, and advise versa. >> president carter probably regarded teddy kennedy as a constant daily/hourly challenge. and for the kennedy, i thought they regarded carter as sort of a bumpkin. >> in 1979 with carter's popularity at a record low, ted decided to revive the kennedy party and do what his brother bobby did, run against a sitting democratic president. >> today i formally announce that i'm a candidate for president of the united states. >> there did seem to be this family legacy to be satisfied, to be the president. and more than that, he obviously knew from watching his brothers that the presidency had a power this no matter how big a senator you could be, you could still do

more for the things you cared about if you were president. >> he did it in some degree of discomfort because he's taking on a president of his own party. he also, i think, had personal reservations about whether his personal skills fit well with the presidency. >> that became clear after kennedy agreed to a high-profile television interview with cbs's roger mudd prior to announcing his candidacy. >> why do you want to be president? >> well, i'm -- were i to make the announcement and to run, the reasons that i would run is because i have a great belief in this country. turned out much like his interview. ill prepared, unfocused, awkward, un-kennedy of the of the 34 primaries, carter won 24, kennedy just 10. >> it wasn't a very well-run

campaign, and it never got traction. i think the main reason was that -- that he probably had not felt it in his -- you know, in his skin that this was his destiny. >> at the convention, ted gave more of an acceptance speech than what it was supposed to be, an endorsement of carter. >> for me a few hours ago this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dreams shall never die. >> they got to see the ted kennedy they should have gotten to see earlier in that campaign. >> by convention's end with the balloons falling and the democrats vetting president carter, kennedy's speechwriter shrum quietly counseled ted to be a good soldier and a team player. >> i looked at him and i said, you are going to raise his hand? and he said yes.

and i got up and looked at him out in the audience and it never happened. >> there were some people in the crowd still shouting, we want ted, we want ted. i went, you know, this is slightly awkward. >> and i guess finally at the very end there was some sort of brief hand touch, but it was in full view of the nation, this absolute physical contempt for the senator towards the president. >> the kennedy campaign machine, which for decades had intimidated and destroyed political foes from hodge to humphrey from johnson to nixon could now only watch. for those savoring a kennedy generation, the dream had been deferred. every 4 to 6 hours?!? taking 8 pills a day... and if i take it for 10 days -- that's 80 pills.

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now that's progressive. call or click today. in the decades following his

1980s presidential bid, ted kennedy finally let go of his dream of reclaiming the white house. in the end, the youngest of the kennedy brothers found that his true calling was the u.s. senate, fighting for health care especially. >> this administration missed the boat, so to speak, in understanding where we were going. >> i think senator kennedy has a very, very deep feeling that he's carrying on a legacy that really matters. he's gone beyond caring it on, he's expanded it and probably passed more significant legislation than many presidents have. >> in 1957, jack kennedy was chosen to select the greatest senators in history. of course, he could only look backward. looking forward, he could have included his youngest brother. >> he's willing to be bipartisan. i think he goes down in history as one of the all-time great liberal senators and democrat senators, no question about it. >> in january 2008, ted kennedy once more responded to the siren call of the white house.

not for himself but to support a presidential candidate who personified the kennedy vision, that legacy, that dream that would never die. >> i know what america can achieve. i've seen it. i've lived it. and with barack obama we can do it again! >> despite being challenged by a serious illness, kennedy refused to quit, going to denver to speak to the democratic convention. >> and this november the torch will be passed again to a new generation of americans, so with barack obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. the work begins anew. the hope rises again, and the dream lives on.

>> my father said 40 years ago there will be an african-american president, and i think there was a sense that what barack obama was doing was continuing the sense of engagement, excitement. >> in truth, the next generation of kennedys is a guy named obama. >> yes, we can. thank you. god bless you and make god bless the united states of america. >> for 50 years now, this story of the kennedy brothers' dogged pursuit of the presidency has been without parallel. what caught us up in jack and roused us with bobby an lured us with ted was deliverance from political mediocrity. they said we could do better.